A boat carrying two teenagers on their way to a graduation cruise to New York accidentally raises Jason from the dead. He climbs aboard, murders the passengers, and rides the boat to the dock, where he stows away on the cruise ship. How Crystal Lake leads to Manhattan would be some interesting geography to see, but whatever.
Jason quickly begins his killing spree, knocking off the crew and the students on board one after another. One of the students, Rennie, senses that something is wrong. But she thinks it is just her imagination playing tricks on her as a result of her intense fear of water. When her boyfriends dad, who happens to be the ships captain, turns up dead the crew and passengers start to realize that everyone is in danger.
The students organize a mob to hunt down and kill the murderer, not realizing quite yet what they are up against. Jason makes short work of most of the ships inhabitants, then proceeds to sink it. The survivors escape on a life boat while Jason swims to shore to intercept them in Manhattan. Rennie, her boyfriend, her domineering guardian, her teacher, and her dog are left to fight their way through Jason, and the mean streets of New York, in hopes of surviving.
Jason Takes Manhattan is one of the worst, if not the worst, of the Friday the 13th series. Set to a painfully awful 80's pop soundtrack, this eighth installment in the franchise is a veritable cheese fest with lots of stupid gags, goofy effects, and obnoxious characters. In other words, it's back to the stylings of the fifth and sixth films. Even Kane Hodder, who does a great job as Jason in The New Blood, has a hard time being scary in such a ludicrous context. He does, however, offer up a few satisfying kills such as those of the abusive asshole foster dad, and the two attempted rapists.
If someone at Paramount thought that there was no way they could realistically bring Jason back to life for another rampage on Crystal Lake, what made them think it would work better to bring him back to life and send him to New York on a cruise ship. Wouldn't it have been easier just not to keep killing him in every movie and then trying to think up some ridiculous way to bring him back to life? Like the characters in these movies, they just never learn.
2 syringe impalement's out of 5
Rated 18A for violence, drug use, language, sexual content, nudity, and frightening scenes.
Watch the Jason Takes Manhattan trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment